A Look Back At The Most Recent NFL Scandals
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With the NFL handing down a shocking punishment to the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady over 'deflategate', it seems as if the National Football League has it's priorities out of whack.
Brady was suspended for the first 4-games of the 2015 regular season and the Patriots were fined $1 million and had some future draft picks snatched away. It is understandable that this punishment was levied because it clearly was cheating, a simple yet almost unnoticeable attempt to alter the game by manipulating game ball pressure.
Without including the numerous domestic violence and banned substance incidents...here is a look back at some of most notable and recent NFL scandals.
The Original Bounty Bowl - 1989
During the 89 regular season the NFL East rival Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles squared off in 2 games. Later, it was discovered that Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan had placed a bounty on Cowboys (and former Eagles) kicker Luis Zendejas.
Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson started to level allegations of targeting after the game following various fights happened between the 2 teams and Zendejas going out of the game with a concussion from a hard tackle by linebacker Jessie Small after a kickoff.
Zendejas later claimed that when he was with the Eagles, a player had once received at least $100–200 each for hits on a kicker and punter, which was the reason why Johnson made the accusation.
The Videotape Controversy - 2007
It was the first scandal of the Patriots with Brady at QB, but was more focused on coach Bill Bellichick.
Early in the 07 season , the Patriots were caught videotaping the hand signals of a NY Jets coach. The league fined coach Belichick $500,000, and the Patriots were fined $250,000. Additionally, the Pats lost their first-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft (if they made the playoffs), or their second- and third-round picks (if they missed the playoffs).
New Orleans Saints Bounty Scandal - 2012
The New Orleans Saints were discovered to have run a "slush fund" during the 2012 season under former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. That fund paid out bonuses to the Saints defensive members to purposely injure offensive players that the Saints were playing against.
The system was known to have operated during Williams's time with the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins. Rumors started in 2009 during the Saints Super Bowl XLIV run in the 2009 NFC Championship game against the Vikings, where the Saints defense was allegedly trying to target then Viking QB Brett Favre.
After discovering the scandal, The NFL Commish handed down one of the harshest penalties in league history, by suspending Williams indefinitely, head coach Sean Payton for the rest of the 2012 season, interim head coach Joe Vitt for the first 6 games, and general manager Mickey Loomis for 8 games.
Linebacker Jonathan Vilma was also suspended for the season, as well as defensive linemen Anthony Hargrove and Will Smith for 8 and 4 games, respectively. Linebacker Scott Fujita was also suspended for 3 games. The players' suspensions were later thrown out on appeal by the NFLPA.
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